High Level Event “Leaving no one behind: Empowering Africa’s Rural Women
for Zero Hunger and Shared Prosperity” | 26 September 2018 – 16:00-17:30

Permanent Mission of the African Union of the United Nations
305 East 47th Street, NY 10017, New York

BACKGROUND

Gender inequality remains a major barrier to equitable and sustainable development, and is both an outcome and a driver of poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Without adequate and sustained investment in gender equality and women’s empowerment in agri-food systems, the achievement of critical development goals will be jeopardized. Over the last two decades, Africa has witnessed an unprecedented political momentum for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The African Union Agenda 2063, adopted in April 2015, calls for people-driven, inclusive development, with specific focus on enhancing women’s access to productive assets; women’s empowerment in all spheres; and equal social, political and economic rights.

Other important milestones since the adoption of Agenda 2063 include:

• the Malabo Declaration on “Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for
  Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods”, adopted by the African Union (AU)
  Summit in June 2014;
• the Declaration “2015 Year of Women’s Empowerment and Development towards
  Africa’s Agenda 2063” adopted in June 2015;
• the African Union Campaign to confine the hand held hoe to the museum launched at
  the AU Summit in June 2015;
• the Declaration on “African Year of Human Rights with Particular Focus on the Rights of
  Women” adopted in July 2016; and
• the new AU Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Strategy for 2018-2023,
  closely aligned to the Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The AU and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) share a deep, longstanding interest in rural women’s economic empowerment and are keen to strengthen their partnership in advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women in Africa Agenda 2063, the SDGs and related development goals. They also have a growing concern about the persistent challenges that African women face in many rural settings and the lack of focus on rural gender issues in agricultural and rural development policies and practice.

PURPOSE AND EXPECTED OUTCOME

This high-level event, which is being organized jointly by the AUC and FAO, will present the findings of the Regional Outlook on Gender and Agrifood Systems prepared by the AUC and FAO within the framework of a technical cooperation project. Speakers will discuss the status of gender equality in the agriculture and rural sectors, the progress made and challenges they face as they embed gender equality and women’s empowerment in strategies for agriculture, value chains, food security and nutrition, and management of natural resources in the context of climate change. They will showcase ways in which multi-stakeholder collaboration can be mobilized, how political attention can be galvanized; and how investment in gender equality enables all people to achieve their full potential, leading to improved food
security and nutrition outcomes.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The event will gather high-level officials from Member States, the UN System and the private sector, together with rural women’s leaders, representatives of civil society organizations, and members of the media and academia.